“Well, my pal, how goes it?”

Surprised at this sudden familiarity on the part of a man from whom I had always most especially kept aloof, and who, I was aware, had marked my shyness, as he had never before sought to exchange words with me, it was some seconds before I could make him any answer.  At length—­

“If you mean as to my health,” said I, “I am very well.”

“Ay, ay; but I don’t mean that,” replied Norcot.  “How do you like your quarters, my man?  How do you like this sort of life, eh?”

“Considering all circumstances, it’s well enough; as well as ought reasonably to be expected,” said I, in a tone meant to discourage farther conversation on the subject.  But he was not to be so put off.

“Ay, in the meantime,” said he; “but wait you till we get to New South Wales; you’ll see a difference then, my man, I’m thinking.  You’ll be kept working, from sunrise till sunset, up to the middle in mud and water, with a chain about your neck.  You’ll be locked up in a dungeon at night, fed upon mouldy biscuit, and, on the slightest fault, or without any fault at all, be flogged within an inch of your life with a cat-o’-nine-tails.  How will ye like that, eh?”

“That I certainly should not like,” I replied.  “But I hope you’re exaggerating a little.”  I knew he was.

“Not a bit of it,” said Norcot.  “Come here, Knuckler;” and he motioned to a fellow-convict to come towards him.  “I’ve been telling this young cove here what he may expect when we reach our journey’s end, but he won’t believe me.”  Having repeated the description of convict life which he had just given me—­

“Now, Knuckler, isn’t that the truth?” he said.

“True as gospel,” exclaimed Knuckler, with a hideous oath; adding—­“Ay, and in some places they are still worse used.”

“You hear that?” said Norcot.  “I wasn’t going to bamboozle you with any nonsense, my lad.  We’re all in the same lag, you know, and must stick by one another.”

My soul revolted at this horrible association, but I took care to conceal my feelings.

Norcot went on:—­“Now, seeing what we have to expect when we get to t’other side of the water, wouldn’t he be a fool who wouldn’t try to escape it if he could, eh?  Ay, although at the risk of his life?”

At this moment we were interrupted by a summons to the deck, it being my turn, with that of several others, to enjoy the luxury of inhaling the fresh sea breeze above.  Norcot had thus only time to add, as I left him—­

“I’ll speak to you another time, my cove.”

Having now no doubt that some mischief was hatching amongst the convicts, and that the conversation that had just passed was intended at once to sound my disposition and to incline me towards their projects, I felt greatly at a loss what to do.  That I should not join in their enterprise, of whatsoever nature it might be, I at once determined.  But I felt that this was not enough, and that I was bound to give notice of what I had seen and heard to those in command of the vessel, and that without loss of time, as there was no saying how wild or atrocious might be the scheme of these desperadoes, or how soon they might put it in execution.